SORRY STATE OF THE FOURTH ESTATE …
|| By FITSNEWS || Two weeks ago we ran an item on how the legacy media in South Carolina were driven not by “news” – and certainly not an obligation to citizens and taxpayers – but by advertisers targeting 25-54-year-old women.
“Their reporters are reality TV, actor wanna-be, script readers,” one of our sources told us by way of response. “Not a journalist in the bunch. All selling ‘viewer driven content’ for advertisers. I’ve lost all regard for them.”
Sad, huh?
We’ve long known South Carolina’s mainstream media was bought and paid for. And totally in the pocket of the state’s status quo. Hell, just last week we reported on yet another glaring example of this trend.
But it’s not just South Carolina … or America … that’s fallen victim to this systematic neutering of journalistic responsibility.
From across the Atlantic comes the tale of Peter Oborne, who recently resigned as chief political commentator for The Daily Telegraph, one of the largest newspapers in the United Kingdom.
According to Oborne, his former employer provided “soft coverage” to HSBC – one of its important advertisers.
“The coverage of HSBC in Britain’s Daily Telegraph is a fraud on its readers,” Oborne wrote. “If major newspapers allow corporations to influence their content for fear of losing advertising revenue, democracy itself is in peril.”
HSBC … HSBC … why do those letters sound familiar? Oh right … HSBC is the London-based bank we referenced in this exclusive report about Barack Obama‘s attorney general designate, Loretta Lynch.
According to a recent congressional investigation, HSBC has exposed the American financial system “to money laundering and terrorist financing risks.” Specifically, the bank is accused of allowing Mexican and Colombian drug cartels to launder nearly $1 billion. Not only that, it allegedly facilitated the financing of terrorist organizations.
Obviously this website has a liberal view on the war on drugs – and no great love for the so-called “war on terror” – but to hear American prosecutors contend that a certain company is “too big to indict” is disturbing. And to hear of a respected “centre-right” publication like The Daily Telegraph effectively labeling a company “too big to criticize” – well, that’s beyond disturbing.
But that’s precisely what Oborne alleges …
“From the start of 2013 onwards stories critical of HSBC were discouraged,” Oborne wrote, adding that “HSBC suspended its advertising with the Telegraph. Its account, I have been told by an extremely well informed insider, was extremely valuable. HSBC, as one former Telegraph executive told me, is ‘the advertiser you literally cannot afford to offend.'”
And so the once-proud paper resolved not to offend the bank.
From Oborne’s article …
Winning back the HSBC advertising account became an urgent priority. It was eventually restored after approximately 12 months. Executives say that (Telegraph CEO) Murdoch MacLennan was determined not to allow any criticism of the international bank. “He would express concern about headlines even on minor stories,” says one former Telegraph journalist. “Anything that mentioned money-laundering was just banned, even though the bank was on a final warning from the US authorities. This interference was happening on an industrial scale.
Wow …
What a sorry state of affairs, huh?
We get that bills have to be paid (especially in an era of declining legacy media circulation). And we get that at the end of the day, everybody’s paid by somebody. Including us. But the Telegraph’s subservient relationship to HSBC – assuming it is what Oborne claims – is a truly frightening commentary on the state of journalism in the world today.
36 comments
FITS, you’re a little different from the Establishment media…but not much.
All of you are too scared to take on the Liberals, w/ full force. You can’t handle the heat..or you agree w/ them…Either way, it diminishes your relevancy – and impact- substantially.
How the fuck would you know what is relevant and what isn’t? I’ll help. Huffington Post is relevant. SCPD is not.
To the contrary: My Blog was VERY successful. I got about 280,000 Page Views in about 5 months. The Hit count was far higher. I BET you FITS did not come close to the amount of traffic I had in his FIRST five months..
Not to mention: EVERY candidate I supported before the election, WON…Dumb@$$…and that was my intention when I put the Blog up.
How many unique page views? 280,000 views in general over 5 months is pathetic.
Funny. How many of those are you? In your defense, most people who share your views of the world can’t read. Maybe you should make videos? I know I would check it out.
IT WAS SO SUCCESSFUL I QUIT DOING IT
I did not market it. Did not have time to write it an sell it. If I had a Sanford or “Pootlian bank-rolling me as his dirty-trick attack dog…I’d be sittn’ pretty…But I’d not sell myself to corrupt people…w/ character deficiencies…
I’m doing other things that pay much better. And I LEARNED a lot about monetizing a website from the SCPSD, as I learned I could make it fly with a commitment to the effort. …It’s still up. I very well may bring it back, once I get the other site running smoothly.
I had a lot of FUN with it. That WONDERFUL piece – or so I was told by many- on the 5-year anniversary of THE CONFESSION is legend…
And thanks for asking…
“Did not have time to write it an sell it. ”
So what is consuming all of your time?
*crickets*
Oh, spamming comments sections of real newspapers, under various profiles, is called marketing now?
So tell us about the impact of your late unlamented blog.
My Blog was VERY successful. I got about 280,000 Page Views in about 5 months. The Hit count was far higher. I BET you FITS did not come close to the amount of traffic I had in his FIRST five months..
Not to mention: EVERY candidate I supported before the election, WON…Dumb@$$…
Lol…SC votes Republican, so it’s not that incredible of a feat.
You left out Prez Perry/Gingrich/Romney….
Then WHY are you and FITS so F*#king WRONG all the time. Are you a big Dumb@$$???
Wrong? How many times did you say Lorenzo Ward was going to be fired?
idiot.
I said he SHOULD BE FIRED, Dumb@$$..and he has been replaced, you clueless f*#K..
Keeping his job as CO=CORDINATOR != being replaced.
You just continue to prove you aren’t that smart.
You’re not that F*#king stupid are you?…Hahahaha..
You painted yourself into a corner. Now I’ve exposed you as a Dumb#$$…And you’re playing along with it…LMAO…
Lo’ is still there because of his contract payment…and he is a good recruiter. He’ll do very little coordinating…he’s a CINO…you idiot…LMAO…
You sure support some assholes. But, of course, you would.
So which republican is going to be president in 2017?
Like FitsNews isn’t bought and paid for at times. Trump and TRav most recently. What a whore.
“at times”….?
He’s bought and paid for by the Kochs (dba Howie Rick on education matters) at all times, every time you see a story about school ‘choice’ or attacking higher education or a dozen other Libertarian causes.
Good to know. Maybe Will just gets some peanuts and is jealous that he isn’t getting any good money or clients. Most political operatives know that if Will writes a glowing review of you, it means you’re probably going to be an embarrassment, if you aren’t already.
Oh come on!!! Drop the holier than thou BS!
“Two weeks ago we ran an item on how the legacy media in South Carolina were driven not by “news” – and certainly not an obligation to citizens and taxpayers – but by advertisers targeting 25-54-year-old women.”
Riiiight. Because FITs is not a business. Fits doesn’t write the occasional ridiculous puff piece…or load an article with thousands of hyperlinks “Click HERE” “Click HERE” blah blah.
Seriously. All media is a business. It must sell advertisements and drive traffic. Turn on any news and try to dispute my claim. Impossible!
I’m not saying that its bad to be a business. Just don’t pretend you are something you are not.
You just another unstable psychotic. Nobody takes you seriously on anything. Why do you even come here? Because you are full of hate and anger, and you have NO LIFE. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!!!!!
Stay classy!
Classy? Someone on FitsNews has been classy?
The Charleston Post and Courier sure is corrupt and in the pockets of criminals. Aside from that,
Back in July of last year, both officers were fired from the Greenville County Sheriffs office after alleged misconduct in office. They were both accused of accepting payoffs/ bribes from local gambling operations. Supposedly, a criminal investigation was launched…
Now, 8 months later, there has been no further updates. It seems very suspicious to me. There has been no updates either by GCSO, SLED, or the 13th circuit solicitors office.
So, it seems it is either being silently swept under the rug by the above mentioned government offices or these two men were fired without cause. And Why has our local media not followed up on this?
Softballing coverage of corporations that pay you money isn’t a bug, it’s a feature.
The government keeps lots of statistics on things like unemployment and inflation, but it really does not keep track of how sick and twisted people are becoming. Most of us recognize that the character of the American people has changed dramatically over the decades, but unlike the national debt, you can’t easily point to a chart or a graph to show exactly how bad things are getting.
Have you seen the movie “God Bless America” or, in short, “taking out the trash”?
We have seen some good muckraking media in this nation at times, but not dominantly.
The captive press has long been recognized, for example, from a hair less than a century ago:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Brass_Check
The internet has ruined ‘the news’.There’s more misinformation than information.This blog doesn’t report the news.It’s an attempt by Fits to raise his self-esteem.When he uses plurals,referring to himself,that’s a dead giveaway.And,my God, you’re SC’s version of Monica Lewinksy.That’s got to be humiliating.The ‘news articles’ on this site are as credible as those in the old,Weekly World News.When is our founding editor going to post a piece about,Bat Boy?
Yet, you frequent here…it’s so odd.
It’s obvious that you are a teacher that enjoyed being a gatekeeper of “acceptable” history, opinion, facts, etc.
Now that information & ideas move close to freely on the internets, people like yourself scream about the “sanctity” or truthfulness of said information…it’s laughable. Now ideas & information have to compete, people get options and can now choose their own personal “truth” while vomit like yourself pitches a hissy fit.
You’re a disgusting creature in almost every way. A homosexual tyrant that can’t even leave people to decide the truth for themselves. A controlling statist freak of the very worst order, like Ms. Lindsey.
“It’s obvious that . . .”
I’ll bet that in Net comments, not two times in ten is this introductory clause followed by anything even remotely supported by evidence or derived from rational inference.
Same with “So . . . .”
Who cares what you’ll “bet” on the internets. It’s as meaningless as your guess in this case.